Playlist
by H-Relics98
Summary: Series of snapshots inspired by verses of songs. Warning: Can be dark, Slash.
1. Billy Kaplan

Series of snapshots of the Young Avengers, through the comic and side stories that are no Canon. Please enjoy!

:)

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_**Playlist**_

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_Teenagers-My Chemical Romance_

_-The boys and girls in the clique  
The awful names that they stick  
You're never gonna fit in much, kid  
But if you're troubled and hurt  
What you got under your shirt  
Will make them pay for the things that they did_

_They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me  
They could care less as long as someone'll bleed  
So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose  
Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me -_

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There was something unmistakably annoying about high school. And almost as annoying as the screaming and chaotic hallways of high school was the fact the Billy Kaplan had no idea what made high school so…exasperating. He supposed it was a combination of things, ranging from the ugly pastel green walls to the impossibly wet wands of gum under every desk. At least, that was his first guess as a new and incoming freshman two years ago.

His sophomore year he decided it was the idiotic, clique-y cheerleader girls that squealed and giggled every time a senior football player stocked by (and the fact that Billy squealed a little himself in his head) and the impossibly stupid teachers that should never had gotten a license to actually pass on their idiocy.

But one day, while sitting in the back of his English class, staring out the large window at the grey, pouring rain, Billy's brain switched from whining about the newly gotten black eye to a sudden realization. High school had many annoying qualities, not just the paint, gum, cliques, and crappy ass teachers. Not just the insanely small selection of electives, food choice (all of which looked like it would morph and run around terrorizing students as a tiny Venom), and out-dated text books. It was so much more than hours and hours of homework that never actually prepared one for the finals and hearing gossip and rumors no one would be able to stop from spreading.

What Billy finally realized during a particularly long lecture about why Hamlet isn't just some stupid fuck whining about his life, was that on top of all those horrible things, none of them were the real reason why high school was so annoying.

It was because, eventually, high school forced one to face who they really were and accept it, no matter how much the world won't, and the world really wouldn't, because no matter how hard parents tired to tell their kids to be optimistic and everything would work out fine, the world graffiti-ed a big fat "Liar" on their advice. Even that wasn't really what was annoying Billy. It was the fact that Billy had reached the answer for himself far faster than any of his peers would.

And it was an ugly answer, one that went along with pretty much every suicidal pushing punk rock song out there. One that the world would defiantly turn around and say, "Well you can just hang yourself now."

Billy Kaplan had gotten lucky in the family department and was pretty well off in the wealth area too, but his luck stopped there. High school just proved to shove it in his face every day, in the form of swirlies in the _girls_ bathroom, regular "physicals" from nearly every jock, snobby eye rolls and disgusted looks, and of course, the oh so wonderful bright red, dripping spray paint on his locker, labeling him for life.

He was doomed from the moment he stepped his geeky ass into the hallway his freshman year. Which was too bad, because the beginning of high school was the beginning of a pre-teens life changing perspective that morphed them into the adult they would one day be.

Realizing all of that in less than two seconds made Billy's blackened eye throb extra painfully. This was what he was going to be, for the rest of his life. A beaten, too shy, geeky, _faggy,_ mutant who was too big of a fan boy and _way_ too obsessed with nerdy movies and TV shows.

Instead of thumbing his desk top with his fist and letting out a frustrated, mildly-self hating growl, Billy opted for a heaping sigh and continued to watch the rain flood the school grounds. Most days would be considered the worst day of someone's life if they experienced Billy's normal day. So Billy wasn't used to going home, flopping down on the couch and announcing to his family that today had been the worst day of his life. In fact, he had never done that…ever.

Until today and he planned on going home and flopping down on his couch and thinking to himself that today was the worst day of his life.

Today was the day he figured out that he pretty much meant nothing to the world, let alone just one person outside his family.

Until then, he had to suffer through the rest of English.

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	2. Teddy Altman

Another Chapter, Enjoy!

:)

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Playlist

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_ Viva La Vida-Coldplay_

_- I used to rule the world  
Seas would rise when I gave the word  
Now in the morning I sleep alone  
Sweep the streets I used to own_

_I used to roll the dice  
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes  
Listen as the crowd would sing:  
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"_

_One minute I held the key  
Next the walls were closed on me  
And I discovered that my castles stand  
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand_

_But that was when I ruled the world –_

He had a way out, an easy way, one that was entirely not fair to the rest of society. But he took it; he took it without thinking about what it could do to other people, to himself.

And all because on the first day of freshmen year, rounding the corner of the too bright, slippery, off white hallways, he witnessed the usual beating of new and geeky freshmen. Because when he passed lockers marked with black sharpie, scrubby handwriting that stung more than a punch to the face, his stomach dropped and his mind rushed.

Teddy Altman had been liked, for the most apart, all through elementary and middle school. He had no doubt he would be liked in high school as well, at least, which was what he told himself his eighth grade year. Of course, that was what all middle schoolers told themselves just before entering high school. The difference between all other incoming freshmen and himself, was that they couldn't change to fit what was necessary to survive the chlorine smelling hallways.

It was simple really, just buff himself up when no one was looking, shorten his hair, no matter how much he liked it slightly long and dangling in his eyes, keep it quiet that he stared a little too intently at the boys in the locker room, and never let it slip that he could do all of that in less than a second. He didn't need 'mutant' marked on his back from the very beginning.

So he took the opportunity and he got just what he wanted, to be liked, swooned over by the opposite sex, wear the Leatherman's jacket, even as a freshmen, and it all came in the form of Greg.

It took weeks on weeks of late movies, a few dances, more than a few winning games, six semesters of a 4.0 GPA, and 720 days of hiding the fact that he had developed more than a slight crush on his best friend before he even came to the point where he even thought about breaking one of his rules.

And so, on one hot day, nearing the end of sophomore year, Theodore Altman took a risk, one that could jeopardize his entirely too easy plan of getting by in high school the popular way. All it took was a moment alone with Greg and a small shift of his arm.

The striking fear had left with Greg's enthusiastic grin. And then Teddy's pride and dignity soon went with it. His summer consisted of breaking and entering, going to clubs, getting high, getting alcohol, getting chicks he didn't even want to know as a friend, and all for Greg. All for the sake of having the front of his locker stay squeaky clean all four years.

Junior year hit with a roaring realization and it didn't sit well with the disappointed pit of Teddy's stomach. And the messy black sharpie on kid's lockers began to affect him less and less. Greg's attitude affected him more and more, until one night, after a winning basketball game, Teddy's inner fan boy got the best of him.

He hated that it had taken him to the middle of Junior year to decide that high school shoved what you were in your face, shaped you into the adult you would become.

Teddy didn't want to become the same adult as Greg was going to.

Teddy wanted to stop pretending to go to work out sessions, checking out girls rather than boys.

Teddy wanted his hair to be longer again.

Teddy wanted five earrings running along his ear lobes.

Teddy wanted to slack off a bit, not force himself to get an A on every test, every paper.

Most of all, Teddy wanted large, scribbled, black sharpie on his locker.

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	3. Eli Bradley

Enjoy! :)

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_**Playlist**_

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_I Don't Care-Fall Out Boy_

_-Oh, take a chance, let your body get a tolerance,  
I'm not a chance, but a heat wave in your pants  
Pull a breath like another cigarette,  
Palms up, I'm trading 'em (trading 'em)_

_I'm the oracle in my chest,  
Let the guitar scream like a fascist,  
Sweat it out, shut your mouth,  
Free love on the streets, but  
In the alley and I ain't that cheap, now_

_I don't care what you think  
As long as it's about me  
The best of us can find happiness  
In misery-_

Elijah Bradley learned things the hard way.

He didn't mind so much, learning the hard way made him a stronger person. But just once, Eli wished that he could get a break.

Wishing and getting were two completely different things. High school made that obvious. Eli normally couldn't complain, he didn't hate his life, he didn't love it either. It just depended on what his day was like. Most of the time he got a few laughs in, kept his grades good enough, managed to make new friends and throw soggy French fries at kids his group hated at school, kids that usually ended up being hypocrites in every way.

Half way in his freshmen year, he decided that history was one of his favorite classes. He didn't really know why, half of his friends didn't understand why he did either, seeing as how America's history seemed to be the worst thing next to Germany's Nazi's.

Eli knew from the start of high school what kind of person he was going to be. A hard working one. Not necessarily the best person ever, he knew he would make choices his grandmother would have slapped him for, but still, he wouldn't turn out like most kids in his neighborhood, he refused too. He deiced that giving up was something for others.

So it was a bit of a shocker when he was sitting in history class one day, glaring at the TV spitting images about the hippie movement in the 60's, when his mind told him strictly that he wanted to help people.

He glared a little harder at the TV that day, knowing that he meant more than going to homeless shelters and soup kitchens. The way he wanted to help…well, there was no way he would be able too.

So Eli just went on, dealing with idiotic kids in his class, hanging out with friends after school, helping his grandparents around the house. Eventually he stumbled into getting an after school job nearing the end of his sophomore year. Keeping busy helped him ignore the fact that half his school was high all the time, or that too many kids dealt drugs, stole, went out after football games and got drunk before driving home with their girlfriends.

Building an impressive humor based on sarcasm alone also kept his mind from hating that he did nothing while his peers shoved their lives down the drain. In fact, Eli hated to admit to himself, but he was perfectly…composed about ignoring when one of his best friends came to school too high to walk straight.

By the time high school was half over for him, Eli was starting to hate himself more than society. While most of society just didn't care, there were a few, who tried to help, tried to be a hero.

Suddenly, becoming a hard working person didn't seem enough anymore. And the little idea of being more to help America live up to what it was 'suppose' to be, well, suddenly the idea became over whelming.

The day his grandfather stood up for himself and Eli, Eli knew the idea was no longer an idea, it was a fucking goal.

He was tired of working hard just to become the norm of society.

He was tired of working hard just to ignore those who didn't.

Eli was tired of working hard for himself.

Eli knew he was going to make choices that his grandmother would slap him for and he had finally found the biggest choice he was about to make was going to be the wrong choice.

But it was the choice that led him down the path of greatness.

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	4. Kate Bishop

Enjoy! :)

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_**Playlist**_

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_If Everyone Cared-Nickelback_

_- And as we lie beneath the stars  
We realize how small we are  
If they could love like you and me  
Imagine what the world could be_

_If everyone cared and nobody cried  
If everyone loved and nobody lied  
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride  
Then we'd see the day when nobody died -_

Kate was annoyed with her life, annoyed with her sister's way of grieving for her mother was shopping.

Still, just because Kate was annoyed didn't mean she was going to stop giving. She had never really planned on doing so many charity events, but when her mother died her freshmen year, it was the only thing Kate had left of her.

Suddenly, school didn't really mean much other than something to do, not that Kate ever really had to try too hard. Getting good grades was natural to her, as many other things were. She considered herself to be a good person, selfless for the most part, maybe a little too stubborn, but everyone had their quirks.

Too bad some people's quirks were as bad as country music.

And it was too bad that Kate had to find that out the hard way.

High school didn't mean anything to Kate, it was just another obstacle to get through.

It was also too bad that she spent half of it in a blur.

There was no such thing as movie nights with her girl friends. No swooning over what guy to go to prom with. No late night study groups or all nighters right before finals. Instead, all it was…was, just, there. High school was high school and every single kid in her's didn't have a clue.

Kate knew though, she knew all too well and all too fast. It was too bad she was wrapped up in a blanket of depression, gaining back the person she used to be, the person she had never fully become even.

Her life stayed the same once she got back on track, but it cost her sophomore and half of junior year to even come close to what she was before. It wasn't until her sister's wedding day did she finally stop falling.

Life had dealt her hard blows, dug her wounds into salt. Maybe it was the price to pay for being so lucky. Before high school she had it all, a good family, too much money to know what to do with, perfect hair, perfect eyes, she was growing into the perfect body of a women.

And then everything went down will the moment high school swept her away and dragged her into the obsessive nature of perfect grades and becoming a perfect person.

Kate had a choice, she could have given up. She could have stopped living and melt away into herself. Or she could have blamed the sudden beginning of her teenage years. There was so much she could have done, should have done.

She could have been smarter, and not walk alone at night through New York's biggest park.

She could have snapped out of the daze of her mother's death.

She could have kept to herself and not bother helping those in more need than her.

She could have been like her sister.

She could have been like her father.

But she wasn't.

Instead, she chose to stop falling.

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	5. Tommy Shepard

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_**Playlist**_

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_Savin' Me-Nickelback_

_-Heavens gates won't open up for me  
With these broken wings I'm fallin'  
And all I see is you  
These city walls ain't got no love for me  
I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story  
And oh I scream for you  
Come please I'm callin'  
And all I need from you  
Hurry I'm fallin'  
I'm fallin'_

_Show me what it's like  
To be the last one standing  
And teach me wrong from right  
And I'll show you what I can be  
Say it for me  
Say it to me  
And I'll leave this life behind me  
Say it if it's worth saving me  
Hurry I'm falling  
I'm fallin' –_

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Fighting wasn't new to him. He had grown up with, hearing it almost every night. When he was younger all he wanted was for it to stop, all he wanted was to be a part of a family that knew more than yelling.

But he embraced it as he grew up and the bitterness of his parent's divorce became his own. He'd done alright for himself, kept ok in school.

He was going to do just fine in high school.

It was too bad high school didn't do just fine with him.

It was too bad he only experienced one year of torture and unrelenting teasing.

He blamed his parents, just like every teenager would.

Why rebel and then take credit for it?

But why would Thomas Shepard rebel at all?

Just because his parents fought all the time and devoiced didn't mean he had a bad life. For the most part he could to whatever he wanted. He knew what was wrong, he knew what was right.

Tommy made enough mistakes sure, just like most teens did. It was just too bad his sarcastic charm made most people think he did things on purpose.

Like blowing up half his high school.

What could he possibly gain from doing that?

Oh, right, juvenile hall, and parents that didn't want anything to do with him.

And who could forget about the joyful experiences that brought him nightmares and pain for weeks on end.

Tommy learned one thing from his parents, and that was how to fight. Everything else he learned on his own. It wasn't ok to punch someone just because. It wasn't ok to tease and hate on others. It wasn't ok to kill, or steal, Tommy knew all of those things. It wasn't really ok to let grades slip either, but he got by, B average, he could still get into half the college's in the U.S. with ease.

Too bad he would never get the chance to see if he really could.

It was in juvenile hall that he learned that revenge was probably the sweetest thing put on Earth.

It was in juvenile hall he learned that people didn't care if you were just a kid, mutation was dangerous and whoever was one, a mutant that is, they didn't have any rights.

Tommy learned more in juvenile hall than he ever learned from his parents.

It was just too bad he would never get the chance to show anyone else what he learned.

It wouldn't matter though, even when he did get out.

All that mattered now was getting revenge.

His parents hadn't even bothered to help him, even when he was screaming for them.

No one was there to save him.

He was just going to keep on falling and at the bottom, well, Pandora's box was waiting for him.

And there was no hope, not for him, not for anyone.

The world would see who Thomas Shepard was.

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	6. Cassie Lang

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_**Playlist**_

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_Nobody's Home-Avril Lavigne_

_- I couldn't tell you why she felt that way,  
She felt it every day  
And I couldn't help her,  
I just watched her make the same mistakes again_

_What's wrong, what's wrong now?  
Too many, too many problems  
Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs  
She wants to go home, but nobody's home  
That's where she lies  
Broken inside  
With no place to go  
No place to go to dry her eyes  
Broken inside –_

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Cassie couldn't stay with her mother.

Everything was wrong; nothing was how it should be. Her father was gone; her mother was dating, far too soon in Cassie's opinion. It wasn't like she could stop it thought. She didn't have a say in anything anymore.

If she did, she would have powers, just like her father.

If she did, she would have a mother that understood.

But Cassie didn't have any of that. Instead she got a mother who tried to ignore that her Father was ever alive. She got a step-father boyfriend that was centered on getting her in trouble for everything.

Just like she had no say at home, she had no say at school. She heard the whispers, felt the pity stares. She didn't want any of it.

Cassie just wanted someone to understand, really understand.

No more pretending.

No more lying.

No more talks.

No more concerned questions.

Cassie had hoped that high school would be a place for her to get away.

She had hoped her entire freshmen year.

She stopped hoping the beginning of her sophomore year.

No one knew what she was feeling, she had nowhere to go.

All Cassie wanted was a home that wasn't empty.

She wasn't going to find that home in New York. She wasn't sure where she wouldn't find it, until…until they showed up on the news.

They would understand.

They were just like her…well, she felt just like them.

Maybe, just maybe, Cassie had finally found a pleasantly crowded home, with the Young Avengers.

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Please Review! :)


	7. Billy and Tommy

Enjoy!:)

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_**Playlist**_

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_Everybody's Fool-Evanescence_

_-Perfect by nature  
Icons of self indulgence  
Just what we all need,  
more lies about a world that_

_Never was and never will be  
Have you no shame, don't you see me  
You know you've got everybody fooled_

_Look here she comes now  
Bow down and stare in wonder  
Oh how we love you  
No flaws when you're pretending  
but now I know she_

_Never was and never will be  
You don't know how you've betrayed me  
And somehow you've got everybody fooled_

_Without the mask where will you hide?  
Can't find yourself lost in your lie-_

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He dreaded the day she came back from _that_ place.

He dreaded meeting up with her and others, watching her sudden new and improved attitude.

She thought she was better than them, because she accepted defeat and got training. She allowed the government to keep tabs on her, tell her what she could and could not do as a person, made her into an object that had to be kept in check.

And she thought she was better than them for it.

He dreaded the day when she came back and said they were a team, said she was one of them, a young avenger.

Billy stared icily as Kate enveloped Cassie's small frame in a hug, as Eli rolled his eyes at her giggling. He glared when Teddy picked her up in a huge skrull crushing hug, as Vision placed a kiss on her temple and welcomed her in his cold arms.

They may have been able to forgive her, for choosing to fight on the other side.

But Billy would never be able to look at her with any amount of love ever again.

She betrayed them, betrayed him.

She was the reason he had scars running a long side his back, on his arms, legs, wrists, ankles, ears.

She was the reason he couldn't sleep for more than three hours at a time.

She was the reason his nightmares woke him, heaving up his dinner.

He didn't have a problem with hating her, just as she had no problem blaming everything on him, on Tommy, on the Scarlet Witch, his real mother.

She had no problem pointing out any of their faults; obviously it was because she was so high above them.

"I see the conniving bitch is back."

Tommy, his arrogant, annoying, sarcastic twin brother.

His twin brother that Cassie wished they hadn't broken out of juvie.

His twin brother that Cassie would have rather left, being tortured and tested on his whole teenage life.

"Back-stabbing, Tommy, its backstabbing bitch."

Tommy chuckles and it rumbles through Billy's body, he's standing so close.

The others could forgive Cassie, but him and Tommy; they were just beginning to blame.

Cassie made him sit at night, curled up on the couch, telling himself that he wasn't a killer, he didn't want to see someone suffer.

But he did, and he wanted to be the cause of Cassie's suffering.

One day, that want would consume him and he wouldn't even try to hold back.

One day, Cassie Lang was going to meat William Kaplan and she was going to run screaming.

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Please Review! :)


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